The Dawn of Postmodern Analytics

New year, and time for the annual trends webinar. It’s the third time I have the honor to present it. As always, it takes a village to create this, and I’m thankful for all the people who chipped in. I’d like to highlight in particular Murray Grigo McMahon. His blog on data as an ecosystem, as well as great discussions, was a big source of inspiration, and will feature in the trends. This year, the title of the webinar is “The Dawn of Postmodern Analytics”.

I’ve chosen to call it that for two reasons – one, because a new platform needs to emerge that follows after the traditional analytics platform and the modern analytics platform, that can deal with the distributed and chaotic data landscape that we are in. Second, it’s a nod towards postmodernist thought. At the heart of postmodernism is distrust in monolithic systems, singular ideas, and points of view. One shouldn’t just accept singular truth, without doubt, and questions. It all depends on the context. And that’s the way we need to address the current data and analytics landscape. We need to move from a singular truth to trust. From data dictates to data democracy. We need something with broader reach to find signals in a vast sea of noise. We need tools that can make participants feel empowered in a system with multiple sources and multiple analytics.

Why now? Well, it’s because technology is changing faster than most of us can comprehend. And the changes are impacting us at every level – not only in our personal lives and workplaces but in our communities and the world. In fact, technology is changing the very ways society operates and shaping our future on the planet. Technology is also creating shifts in power. Hundreds of years ago, power resided in land ownership. With the Industrial Revolutions, especially the steam engine and the combustion engine, power shifted to manufacturers. In the data age, power is now moving to the organizations that hold the information. You need to look no further than a list of companies with the biggest market caps in the world. It looks very different today than ten years ago. But if information is power, should we fear too much of it in one place? Today’s digital giants are hoarding data in monolithic data centers, try to lock you in, and then put powerful AI on top. Some national governments follow suit. This creates information asymmetries. The traditional political spectrum of the left and right seems to increasingly be replaced by another spectrum – centralized vs. de-centralized. That will be a big theme of this year’s trends. I see 10 trends that will create the perfect storm forming the underpinning of the next generation of data and analytics platform, that must deliver high-caliber performance and can easily scale to the masses – thus ensuring analytics is accessible to all people and all organizations, ensuring that data remains distributed, and in the ownership of the many. In the process, these platforms will gain traction, influence, and value through their collaboration capabilities and networking effects. The e-book is available now, and the webinar will air on January 15th. Both can be accessed here.

@Dansommer shares what's next for the world of #BI and #analytics in 2019